(Newser)
–
Theo Epstein got himself hired as general manager of the Red Sox at age 28 and quickly became known as a baseball wunderkind when Boston busted its curse and won the World Series in 2004. Epstein is 42 now and on the cusp of doing the same for another city as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. (The Series starts Tuesday night.) In a lengthy profile at ESPN, Wright Thompson profiles Epstein, now considered a "baseball whisperer" of sorts. One nugget: He walks the seven blocks to work every day. "Most people don't recognize him with his baseball hat pulled low, one of the most famous sports executives in the country, the man who embraced the culture of analytics to finally bring a title to the Red Sox," writes Thompson.

But much of the piece details how the real Epstein is quite a contrast from the image of an "analytics" nerd who crunches numbers. Complicated-looking formulas are posted on a glass window in his office, all of it "meaningless," Epstein explains, a joke playing off that image. He loves the game on a gut level, a feeling he had all but lost in Boston, writes Thompson, who adds that the stress took a physical toll. "His friends saw how the job changed his face." At one point, he called the Patriots' Bill Belichick for advice on handling success after the World Series win, and Belichick told him, "You're f-----." Click for the full story, in which Epstein recalls being so introverted in high school that he would follow people home unnoticed. "I could not exist but observe." (Read more Theo Epstein stories.)

He walks the seven blocks to work every day"---So much for that little routine.

1.77245

Oct 25, 2016 3:15 PM CDT

He USED to walk to work. Now he's going to have to take a cab because Newser blew his cover.

John Q. Username

Oct 25, 2016 12:44 PM CDT

Once again we see that Boston Bean Sox fans are the worst. They're loud, foul-mouthed, bullying, know-nothing blowhards and their "Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?" attitude makes players (and Epstein) a hero one day and an overpaid bum the next. Don't get me going about how the stupid Neanderthal hypocrites criticize everything and everyone in sports but defend the immoral and dishonest ways of Tom Brady and the cheating Patriots even after they've been caught being the pieces of scat that they are time and time again.